It may be possible that the standard Fedora rpm works on the current version of Fedora. For example, the fc8 version has been verified with Fedora 8 and 9. The fc7 rpm will work on fc6, with a few small issues. This usually works, but it is not a supported method, ie: if it breaks the error may not be with gramps or the fedora build, but with the differences between fedora versions. In other words you're on your own with trouble shooting, and if you do report a bug then be sure that it isn't to do with the version mismatch - don't confuse the developers/builders with introduced problems (one's outside their control).

+

It may be possible that next to the standard Fedora rpm there's a newer version available for development testing.

−

Assuming you have an existing version of gramps installed, then to install the development rpm for fc9...

+

Assuming you have an existing version of gramps installed, you can try to install from the following repositories:

+

yum --enablerepo=updates-testing update gramps

yum --enablerepo=development update gramps

yum --enablerepo=development update gramps

−

if you don't have any version installed, then '''install''' it using...

+

If you don't have any version installed, then use '''install''' instead of '''update'''.

−

yum --enablerepo=development install gramps

+

For Fedora versions 6 and older, the development repository is called '''extras-development'''.

For Fedora versions 6 and older, the development repository is called '''extras-development'''.

Revision as of 02:24, 22 September 2008

The installation page details how to download and install a working version of Gramps to your operating system of choice. For most users...

yum install gramps

will be all that is needed for the fedora distribution. This page details a different method and is for those users wanting an alternative version of gramps, this may be to test a SVN version or to install the latest stable version.

If you don't have any version installed, then use install instead of update.

For Fedora versions 6 and older, the development repository is called extras-development.

To build the rpm from source

A better approach to installing the binary rpm is to build the package from source, this will build gramps using the package versions that you have installed. The [1] directory contains the source rpm for the latest development build. Download this rpm, install it and build your own binary using the fedora release (in this case fc6) you're running, as the build environment.

Build errors: such as unpackaged files etc: The remedy for any of these errors will vary depending on circumstances, ie; there are no easy answers. Read the error message carefully, copy a relevant part of the message string, and search the net. The chances are very good that the problem has been encountered before and a solution exists. If that fails and you're still keen, try the mailing lists.

adding the following line on top of the spec file, /usr/src/redhat//SPEC/gramps.spec: %define _unpackaged_files_terminate_build 0 is a temporary solution provided from the [2] lists. Remember, the file will still need packaging, the difference is the build will complete, or the next error will abort it. You'll just be a step closer to knowing how to fix it, or phrasing the question ;-)

To build an rpm from SVN

Caveat emptor:

Some assumptions have been made here, the prime one being that you have any needed devel packages installed, and therefore a system that can actually build from source. If you don't have one - yet - then continue on and hopefully your system will give enough clues so that you can get to the final stage, and build an rpm. (Ah! and please update this page to suit, or notify the mailing list).

A secondary assumption is that your happy to install over your existing gramps installation? This is the SVN (bleeding edge) package and things may break. The flip side to that problem is that once they're reported they'll be fixed and goodness will prevail!

And with that in mind, backup your database first. Don't work on that which is irreplacable.

Happy Bug Hunting!

If this is the first build on this machine then the following installation may be required, to install the build environment in the users directory.
su -c 'yum install rpmdevtools'

then login as a 'normal' user and run rpmdev-setuptree . This will silently create the 'rpmbuild/' tree in the users home directory (instead of using usr/src/redhat). In addition the dependencies listed above (under 'Problems with the build' need to be installed. Once this is done the gramps build can proceed.

The following acts out the build process for the 2.2.5 pre-release from SVN.

If this fails with which: no gnome-autogen.sh follow the advice and execute
su -c 'yum -y install gnome-common'

If it again fails, but with...

checking for intltool >= 0.25...
testing intltoolize... not found.
...
...
...
Checking for forbidden M4 macros...
***Error***: some autoconf macros required to build gramps
were not found in your aclocal path, or some forbidden
macros were found. Perhaps you need to adjust your
ACLOCAL_FLAGS?

then su -c 'yum -y install intltool'

In my case this succesfully ran to completion, except for the following suggestion

Please add the files
codeset.m4 gettext.m4 glibc21.m4 iconv.m4 isc-posix.m4 lcmessage.m4
progtest.m4
from the /usr/share/aclocal directory to your autoconf macro directory
or directly to your aclocal.m4 file.
You will also need config.guess and config.sub, which you can get from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/config/.

which I have so far ignored, with no ill effects.

The resulting directory now needs to be packaged as gramps-2.2.5.tar.gz

cd ../

tar cvf - gramps-2.2.5 | gzip -f9 > gramps-2.2.5.tar.gz

mv gramps-2.2.5.tar.gz /home/<user>/rpmbuild/SOURCES/

cd /home/<user>/rpmbuild/

su -c 'rpmbuild -bb SPECS/gramps.spec' where gramps spec is the following file.

But first a word about the spec file, this one works for 2.2.4 and 2.2.5 on fedora core 6, it may not work on other versions/releases - whatever. If it doesn't see above (ie: don't despair, go looking and try to solve the problem, if you succeed then modify the spec - both yours and the one on this page - to suit. If you don't succeed, then ask as per the suggestion above.)
This spec file is a minor adaption of the one used by the fedora extras maintainers and has been extracted from the source file gramps-2.2.4-3.fc7.src.rpm. There may be a more up todate file in a newer src package?